Peter Cellensis, also known as Peter of Celle, Peter of Celles, Pierre de Celle and Peter de la Celle, (c. 1115 in

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

– 20 February 1183, at

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as d ...

) was a French

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

and bishop.

Life

He was born into an aristocratic family of Champagne and educated in the Cluniac Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs at Paris. He spent part of his youth at

Provins Provins () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Known for its well-preserved medieval architecture and importance throughout the Middle Ages as an economic center and a host of annu ...

with his long-term friend

John of Salisbury John of Salisbury (late 1110s – 25 October 1180), who described himself as Johannes Parvus ("John the Little"), was an English author, philosopher, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres. Early life and education Born at Salisbury, En ...

.: at Reference n. 11 and n. 12. Became a Benedictine, and in 1150 was made

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

of " La Celle" in

Saint-André-les-Vergers Saint-André-les-Vergers () is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France. Population See also * Communes of the Aube department The following is a list of the 431 communes of the Aube department of France. The communes coop ...

, near Troyes, where he got his surname, Cellensis. In 1162 he was appointed Abbot of St. Rémy at Reims, and in 1181 he succeeded John of Salisbury as

Bishop of Chartres The oldest known list of bishops of Chartres is found in an 11th-century manuscript of Trinity Abbey, Vendôme. It includes 57 names from Adventus (Saint Aventin) to Aguiertus (Agobert) who died in 1060. The most well-known list is included in the ...

. He was highly regarded by many other churchmen of his time such as

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...

Pope Eugene III Pope Eugene III ( la, Eugenius III; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He w ...

and

Pope Alexander III Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland ( it, Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a con ...

.Peter Cellensis
-

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

article

Works

His literary productions were edited by Janvier and reprinted in ''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...

'' (202:405-1146),. They consist of 177 epistles, 95 sermons, and four treatises. The treatises were titled: *''Epistola ad Joannem Saresberiensem'' *''De panibus'' *''Mystica et moralis expositio Mosaici tabernaculi'' *''De conscientia'' *''Tractatus de disciplina claustrali'' His letters were edited separately and are believed to be valuable from an historical standpoint. According to the ''

'' (1913), his sermons and treatises "are extremely bombastic and allegorical". In addition to the four treatises (De Disciplina Claustrali, De Conscientia, De Puritate Animae and De Affiictione et Lectione), Peter of Celle composed five commentaries (two on

Ruth Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Ar ...

, two on the Tabernacle of Moses and ''De Panibus'', an account of the references to bread in the Bible).These works appear in PL ccii. 397–1146 An account of them appears in Marcel Viller et al., ''Dictionnaire de Spiritualité'', 14 vols to date, Paris 1937.

Modern editions

* Peter of Celle, ''Selected Works: Sermons, the School of the Cloister, On Affliction and Reading, On Conscience'', trans Hugh Feiss, CS, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987) * Peter of Celle, ''The Letters of Peter of Celle'', ed. and trans. Julian Haseldine (Oxford, OUP, 2001)

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cellensis, Peter 1110s births 1183 deaths People from Troyes French Benedictines Bishops of Chartres 12th-century French Roman Catholic bishops French abbots